Before selecting a music genre, I decided to research on different genre. Heres a small preliminary research that my class did together before we focused on individual genres.
Reflection: This was something I found relatively easy because we worked on it as a class task at the beginning, rather than individually, and we were able to share each others answers to expand our research with more creative ideas. I enjoyed it since we got to watch music videos which made the task more engaging. However, because everything was done in one lesson, I sometimes struggle to keep up, as my teacher moved on to the next music video while I was still on the previous one which caused confusion and made me to lose track of my progress. In the end, I reviewed and improved my work after school, adding more detail and organising it better so that it was clear and presentable which showed the time and effort I had to put into my research.Saturday, 20 September 2025
Friday, 19 September 2025
Classwork: Summary of First Project
At the start of the school year in Media Studies we did a small projects. It helped us prepare for bigger projects like this one. Heres a summary of my projects that I've done.
Tourism Ad Project
Crime Documentary Project
Reflection: This blog felt quite disappointing at first because we had to look back at our very first projects, which also marked the end of this journey. It was sad to see how my early work lacked creativity and was incomplete, especially when comparing it to my recent projects and noticing such a big different. At that time, I also lacked commitment because I was balancing other responsibilities like basketball, so I did not develop as many skills as I could have. However, reflecting on it helped me realise how much I have grown. It pushed me to become more open-minded and expand my creativity and mindset. Although it felt bittersweet to look back, I also felt relief and satisfaction seeing how much more professional I have become. Looking back made me realise how far I have come, and it motivates me to keep improving and take on future projects with even more confidence and creativity.
Thursday, 18 September 2025
Classwork: Theory of Stardom
Here is a classwork that we did on the theory of stardom where we talked about an artist and how they connect to the theory mentioned.
Reflection: I found it challenging to choose the perfect artist which made it harder to clearly explain and connect the theory. Even though the artist I ended up selecting wasn't part of the genre I had originally considered, I was still able to adapt my understanding of the theory and apply it effectively to show how it relates to their career and public image. I completed this work last minute, which wasn't the best approach and I realise that better time management and planning ahead would have given me more time to develop stronger ideas and included more detialed examples. Despite working quickly the task itself was fairly easy so finishing it under time pressure didn't affect the quality too much but in the future taking more time and working more consistently would make my work stronger and less rushed.Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Classwork: Persona
This is a classwork we did together, where we discussed on persona and build our artist persona for our music video project.
Reflection: We didn't face major problems since the task itself was quite simple, and because we had already changed our artist beforehand, we didn't need to redo anything on the slides which saves us some time. However, the main issue was that we completed the task last minute, which meant our work lacked depth and was quite basic. Although we managed to finish it quickly by splitting the tasks between group members and later adding small details, the overall quality could've been much better. I hope that we can aim to be more detailed in our explanations, especially when describing the person I'm representing by including clear reasons and specific examples to support our ideas. We should also manage our time more effectively and take the task more seriously from the beginning rather than rushing at the last minute.Classwork: Theories
This blog explains all the media theories that I've learned in class which will help me with my project and written essays through slides, these key terms and explanations helps me understand more easily. This blog post was done entirely by me (Kristine).
Reflection: This task was very helpful for me because writing everything down allowed me to better understand and remember the concepts. These slides also act as a useful guide for my exams, as the key terms help shape my understanding of media essays. I often refer back to them when working on my blog tasks, as they help stay focused and check whether I have supported my answers with relevant theories. Creating these notes also improved my confidence in identifying and applying the correct concepts in my work especially since I tend to be unsure and forgetful at times. In the future, I hope to continue using them as simple and effective revision tools, especially if I study similar theories again, as they provide a clear structure that supports my overall understanding.Classwork: Technical Elements
Here is a summary of what we have been learning in class. We learned about different types of Technical Elements in media. This blog post was done entirely by me (Kristine).
Heres a video of what my teacher gave us to get a better understanding of Sounds:
Camera
A camera captures images, and different shots and angles show emotion, size, and perspective.
Camera Angles
Effects
Long Shot: Shows the full subject and setting.
Extreme Long shot: Shows the subject from afar.
Medium Shot: Balances subject and setting, often used for conversations.
Cowboy Shot: Focuses on the face or details, shows emotion or importance.
Close Up: Focuses on the face or details, shows emotion or importance.
Extreme Close Up: Highlights tiny details and intensity.
POV: Shows a characters perspective, creates immersion.
Over the Shoulders: Shows one character from another's viewpoint, creates connection or tension.
High Angle: Makes the subject appear powerful or dominant.
Dutch Angle: Creates unease or tension.
Establishing Shot: Provides location and contact, often helps set a scene.
Here is a video of what my teacher gave us to get a better understanding of Camera Angles:
Camera Shots
Fixed | Camera remains static | Calm, peace, normal |
Push in | Camera moves slowly toward subject | Brings the audience closer, more involved, getting more serious. |
Pull out | Camera moves slowly away from subject | Takes audience away from the action, leaving a character. Detaching from subject |
Pan | Side to side, camera fixed | Reveal information, mirrors natural head movement of the audience. |
Tilt | Up and down, camera fixed | Same as pan, just a different direction |
Dolly | Camera moves around freely | More immersive, we are moving inside the subjects world, we feel part of the action |
Tracking | Camera moves around on tracks | Similar to dolly, but smoother. |
Crane | Taken by a camera mounted on a jib/crane that moves up and down. | Reveals the epic size of the setting, landscape. |
Handheld | Camera is shakey | Very natural, immersive. High energy |
Zoom | Zoom | Brings audience closer to budget. Draws our attention to something. |
Heres a video I made of my understanding of different camera shots:
Sound
Sound in media includes dialogue, music, and effects to create mood, tell stories, and add realism.
Type of Sounds
Description | Effect | |
Diegetic sound | Sound that can be heard by the characters within the media text. | Add a sense of realism. Reveal information to characters (and then audience) |
Non diegetic sound | Sound that can only be heard by the audience. | Enhance meaning, create an emotional response in the audience |
Trans diegetic sound | Sound that transitions from one to the other. | Creates a link between the audience and the world. More immersive |
Heres a video of what my teacher gave us to get a better understanding of Sounds:
Sound
Non-Diegetic Tones
Description | Effect | |
Melodic | Positive and pleasing connotations | Enhances a positive scene. Create positive emotions in the audience. |
Discordant | Harsh and unpleasant connotations. | Enhance negative scenes. Create suspense, tension, anxiety |
Contrapuntal | Has an opposite tone to the on-screen visuals. | Adds deeper meaning to scenes. Insight into the character's thoughts. Maybe they seek pleasure in doing bad things. |
Here are music videos that best represents these type of Non-Diegetic Tones:
Melodic
Discordant
Contrapuntal
The idea of this music shows how its upbeat, happy music contracts with its dark and serious lyrics.
Mise-en-Scene
Refers to the arrangement and design of visual elements within a framework or a scene.
Here is a video of what my teacher gave us to get a better understanding of Mise-en-Scene:
Editing
The process of selecting and arranging footage to create a cohesive and engaging story.
Long Take vs Short Take
Here is a comparison of how Long Take and Short Take editing looks like:
Continuity vs Non-Continuity Editing
Continuity Editing | Non continuity editing |
*Match cut |
*Match cut |
Reflection: Classwork like this is my favourite because we get to discuss the technical elements used in the visual world. My favourite part is finding examples, as I find it really interesting to explore and analyse them. However, when it came to music videos, it was more difficult to find clear technical elements since they are less commonly presented as examples online, so I had to find them on my own I also completed this after the submission date and added more details, which took extra time during my free time. Overall, I found this task relatively easy since I had done something similar last year, and I am satisfied with the final results, especially with how quickly I was able to find suitable examples.
My Team
This is my team for my music video project.
Lamiya: https://miya-regentsmedia.blogspot.com/
Reflection: The teams weren't chosen by us, but chosen by our teacher who assigned the groups to balance students who were taking the exam and those who were not, since most were not taking it. He used a Google Form to understand our abilities and place us into suitable teams. Initially, I was groomed with Lamiya and two other members who had completely different genres and creative visions from us, which caused a clash in ideas. Because of this, we decided to split and take one member, Eileen, so we could still meet the minimum group size. This turned out to be the best decision, as Lamiya and I were both taking the exam and wanted to keep a consistent vision without compromising our chosen genre. Now I will reflect on each team member and their role in the project.
Eileen: Eileen was a very helpful person because she understood my situation, knowing that Lamiya and I were taking exams, so she had less input when it came to ideas. She was my neighbour, which made things much easier since I could just walk to her house and work together. Sometimes, she was especially helpful when I struggled with conversations and interactions with other members, like the made lead in our project, particularly when Lamiya was unavailable due to urgent situations. Thankfully, our friendship grew closer, and we were able to rely on each other when issues came up within the group.
Lamiya: In the project work, the only person I could rely on was Lamiya because she was considered the dominant member of our group. One challenge we faced was when Lamiya was away for week just before the submission date, which left Eileen and me to complete the work on our won. It also then felt really unfair despite the fact that after having to complete individual tasks, she did not consent to use my work but instead using them and crediting herself giving the impression that she had contributed more than she actually did. We also struggled with a lack of communication during that time. Since Lamiya played such a key role in leading the group, it was difficult for us to continue effectively without her. Thankfully, our teacher noticed our struggle and stepped in to support us, helping us as a team member rather than just as a teacher.
Overall: To me, being in a group of three is not highly recommended. It's better to either work alone or in a larger group. Considering the chaotic problems I experienced with my group members, I should be more cautious about who I choose to work with. Even if we share similar ideas, some people may become more autocratic, which can create major communication issues. Overall, Im thankful that by the end of the submission, I was able to work on the project on my own, fix the parts I wasnt satisfied with, and shape it in my own style.
Weekly Progress + Plan
This is the weekly progress and my plan for my music video project.
Pre-Production Class Term 2
Week 1
This week was the introduction week where we were introduced to the music video project which was also carried out with a preliminary research by looking at different music video genres to help shape our ideas. We were initially placed into groups, but due to disagreements and technical conflicts over genre choices, my original group decided to split. I then formed a new group with members who shared a similar vision, particularly an interest in creating a pop music video. Although it was challenging to find classmates who wanted to work with the same genre, working in a smaller group of three made communication clearer and collaboration more efficient. In the future, I want to improve how I handle creative disagreements, as even when we agree on the genre, different ideas and levels of production can still arise, and learning to combine these ideas will help create a stronger final music video.
Week 2
We continued our media research both in class and during non-project lessons, and we were also introduced to a new theory in media ecology. I still need to continue my research as my team decided to focus on the pop genre, so I plan to do one piece of research each day to mange my time better. However, I struggled with procrastination because the research for one specific genre was quite extensive, and we had limited class time, meaning much of it had to be completed in my free time. Although I enjoy researching, my motivation sometimes drops, and watching music videos often distracts me. To improve, I need to work on my concentration skills, as getting distracted easily affects how efficiently I complete tasks, especially in preparation for real-world situations. Learning media ecology was not a major issue, as the theory was straightforward and we would only use it to help for the exams.
Week 3
This week we focused on completing our research while also continuing to learn topics such as media ecology and media regulation in class. We were expected to finish our research by the end of the week, which made it slightly challenging to balance both coursework and theory at the same time during lessons. During lessons, we also shared different music videos as a class activity, which helped guide our imagination and connect our ideas to real examples for our project. However, managing multiple tasks at once felt a bit overwhelming, especially with the decline approaching. To deal with this, I tired to stay more focused in class and use the examples shown to support my understanding instead of spending too much time searching for new ones by myself. From now on, I want to improve how I manage my time so I can complete tasks more efficiently and staying on track without feeling rushed.
Week 4
We were introduced to the concept of persona and continued working on our new task, statement of intent, by creating our own artist for the music video for our idea. We spent most of the lessons focusing on developing this idea and looking at existing artists to help guide us with examples. A difficulty I faced was creating a persona that felt both realistic and creative, as we had to think about both their public image and real identity at the same time. During these processes I found myself overthinking the details, which slowed down my progress. To overcome this, I used examples from real artists to help shape our ideas and make the process easier to understand. As a result, our artist concept became clearer and more developed as a group. I want to be more confident in my creative decisions and not spend too much tine doubting my ideas in the future.
Week 5
This week we focused on learning theories and began practising essay writing in preparation for our unit assessment on media ecology for exams. We went into more depth about the theory and learned how to apply media context into our paragraphs in writing. A challenge I faced was structuring my ideas clearly, as writing analytical paragraphs requires more than just understanding the theory properly. To improve this, we looked at case studies and examples of strong answers, which helped me see how to build a well structured response step by step. Although it was difficult at first, I started to understand how to link theory to real media examples more effectively in my work. Moving forward, I want to continue practising my essay writing so I can express my ideas more clearly and faster under timed conditions.
Week 6
This week was mainly focused on finalising our project, including completing the moodboard, storyboard, and location scouting for filming. Since the holidays and exams were coming up, most of our class time was spent finishing these tasks rather than learning new content in lessons. It was a more relaxed week, but staying productive was still important to ensure everything was completed on time and done properly. At times, it was easy to lose focus because there was less pressure compared to previous weeks in class. However, we worked through each task step by step, which helped us stay organised and complete our planning as a team. As a result, we now have a clear direction for our music video moving forward. I hope that I will stay consistent with my focus even during less structured weeks like this.
Reflection: I am grateful that this term our project was relatively light and less stressful, as we mainly focused on preparing ourselves for filming rather than completing heavy production tasks. This allowed us to get or before the school break so we could be ready to film during or after the holidays without worrying too much about pre-production. However, we struggled with finalising our film schedule because some group members had holiday plans which made communication and coordination difficult. As a result parts of our preproduction were delayed but we updated our plans and clearly documented the changes in our blog to show responsibility. In the future I hope we can follow our schedule more consistently, improve communication, and be more so that we can avoid confusion, reduce the mistakes, and be more productive next term.
Post-Production Class Term 3
Week 1
This week focused on understanding how artists construct a strong and recognisable persona through the Theory of Stardom. We learned that artists are carefully built through media elements such as visuals, marketing, and audience perception rather than being naturally famous. At first, it felt slightly overwhelming because there were many different factors to consider, including clothing, camera angles, and social media presence. However, by analysing real artists, I began to understand how these elements work together to create a consistent and recognisable image. This helped me realise how even small details can influence how audiences perceive an artist. Moving forward, I want to apply this understanding more clearly when developing my own artist and ensure all elements of my project work together consistently.
Week 2
This week we studied Postcolonial Theory and how media represents different cultures and power dynamics influenced by historical colonisation. We discussed how Western perspectives are often presented as dominant, while other cultures may be shown in a simplified or stereotypical way. A challenge I faced was fully understanding how these ideas apply to modern media, as the concepts required deeper thinking and analysis. However, through class discussions and example, I began to recognise how representation can shape audience perceptions and reinforce certain ideas. This made me more award of the importance of being careful when creating media content. I hope that I ensure that my work represents culture in a respectful and accurate way without reinforcing stereotypes.
Week 3
In this week, we learned about fandoms and how audiences are not just passive viewers but active participants in building an artists success. We explored how fans interact online, share content, and create communities that increase an artists popularity and influence. At first, I did not fully understand how significant audience engagement was beyond simply watching content. However, by analysing examples, I realised how fans can shape an artists image and help promote their work. This made me think more about how my own project could connect with an audience and encourage interaction. Moving forward, I want to focus on creating content that feels relatable and engaging so it can attract attention and build a strong connection with viewers.
Week 4
This week focused on applying our theoretical knowledge to the practical side of our project by researching digipaks, branding, and editing techniques. We analysed how professional artists maintain a consistent visual style across different platforms, including album covers, music videos, and social media. A challenge I faced was deciding how to create a clear and consistent visual identity for my own project. To overcome this, I looked at multiple examples and identified patterns in colour schemes, layouts, and design choices. This helped me develop a clearer vision of how my project should look and feel. In the future, I want to make sure that all elements of my project are visually consistent and effectively represent the artists persona.
Week 5
This week continued the development of the project by turning research and planning into practical creative work. I started experimenting with editing, colour grading, and visual effects that match the persona and branding of my music video. One difficulty I faced was making sure that my visuals accurately reflected the ideas I had planned earlier, as reflecting ideas into actual outcomes was not always straightforward. Eventually, I was able to identify what worked best and refine my approach. This process helped me understand how small visual choices can significantly influence how the audience perceives the artist. I hope that I can continue improving my editing skills to create a more polished and professional final product.
Week 6
This was the last couple of days I had to complete my project, which included the music video, social media page and the digipak. I faced major challenges, including having to stay up all night just to get it done for the following week. I thought I would finish it easily, but I still procrastinated and ended up submitting it minutes before the deadline on a Google Form. Thankfully it was only those three main parts and not the critical reflection yet which made it made it easier for me to focus. In the future I really need to improve my time management because those late nights affected my health and my motivation to do other things. After the submission, I now have time to fix and improve my work so it becomes a better version for the actual Cambridge submission.
Reflection: This was really stressful for us because we had to make our weekly progress very detail. Because of how hard it is to talk about each days of the week knowing that there's not much problems to it it made it difficult to properly elaborate and expand to talk about the week. So what I did was focus on the main points that I learned in class and will start adding more detail after class so that the blog work is done well. In the future I hope that I can remember small details that the teacher talked about so that I could use to write in my weekly progress. I personally think this weekly progress is very useful and beneficial thing to us because it helps tracks what we've learnt and what we've done so that we know if we have the time or not to do classwork and effectively discuss about the things we've learned in class.
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